Announcement: $20.6 million in research funding to Western researchers from NSERC
Ministers of Parliament, Kate Young and Peter Fragiskatos today announced more than $20.6 million in research funding, scholarships and fellowships at Western University from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
The funding is part of the Research Tool and Instrument (RTI) and Discovery Grants program, and is NSERC’s largest annual investment. The funding helps move forward research by providing financial support though scholarships, fellowships, research supplements, and equipment grants.
“The NSERC Grants are competitive and rigorously reviewed awards that validate the research excellence, creativity and inspiring research training opportunities that exist within our research community,” said David Litchfield, Vice Dean of Research and Innovation at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. “The NSERC RTI awards are a great boost for our research community that will enable the acquisition of innovative new technologies to open new avenues of research and further enhance training opportunities.
Here, funded research projects ranged from in-vivo measurements of airways and alveoli, to measuring embryonic heart development. In total 25 research projects were funded at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, totaling more than $4.3 million in funding. 11 trainees at the School were recipients of scholarships and fellowships from NSERC.
For Cheryle Seguin, PhD, and Lauren Flynn, PhD, the funding has helped to purchase a suite of equipment for mechanical testing of extremely small and soft tissues. “This equipment is the first of its kind at western and will let us determine the mechanical properties of joint tissues from mouse models, as well as novel biomaterials being developed for tissues engineering, cell and drug delivery,” said Seguin.
Congratulations to each of the recipients at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.
